tests. the fbi is working the case with other agencies. anita brikman is with me for more on the effects of ricin. >> there is no antidote for ricin right now so avoiding exposure is paramount. it's found naturally in caster beans and can be ex trabtd during -- extracted during the processing. ricin has been tested as an experimental way to kill cancer cells but it doesn't take a lot to kill a whole person. the symptoms depend on the way you're exposed, whether the poison has been inhaled or ingested. with inhalation, people have trouble breathing. fever and cough and fluid can breathe up in their lungs. with digestion, vomiting and diarrhea are the first signs and it can lead to organ failure. the cdc says what doctors can do is supportive therapy. you support the patient, give

them i.v. fluids, put them on a respirator. >> and hope they didn't take enough to kill them. >> that's exactly right. we are learning more about what could prove to be the big clue at the bombing of the boss responsible marathon this hour. boston television stations say they passed these pictures from a viewer on to the fbi. in the first one, you can see a bag that's highlighted on the ground right in front of the barricade along the marathon route. this was taken at least an hour before the bombing. now, this second picture was taken after the bomb went off. so far, no comment from the fbi on the photos. and also, no arrests so far. and no one claiming responsibility for the terror attacks. law enforcement officials say the devices were put inside pressure cookers, and then put inside some sort of bag, something plaque nylon. investigators say they were designed to look like pieces of trash while they certainly were not. more than 170 were hurt,

several losing their limbs. three people were killed including 8-year-old martin richard. his sister lost her leg. his mother suffered a brain injury. they're both recovering in the hospital. president obama calling these attacks an act of evil. >> if you want to know who we are, what america is, how we respond to evil, that's it. selflessly, compassionately, not afraid. >> and president obama will be in boston thursday. they're having an enter faith service for -- interfaith service for the victims. our bruce leshan has been in boston and has the latest from there right now. >> reporter: we are just outside one of the law enforcement staging areas on the boston common. and the authorities are pledging to go to the ends of the earth to catch the killer or killers. but the fbi is also pleading for help closer to home. this special agent in charge says these killer or killers

are somebody's neighbor, somebody's friend, somebody knows them. the person who did this is someone's friend, neighbor, coworker or relative. we're asking anyone who may have heard someone speak about the marathon or the date of april 15th in any way that indicated that he or she may target the event to call us. >> reporter: the fbi says the explosives were packed in two pressure cookers, stuffed in dark-colored bags and left on the ground. they were apparently loaded with nails and bb's designed to inflict maximum injury. the blast wave and shrapnel spread across the sidewalk, which is why so many people suffered catastrophic injuries to their legs. >> that guy jumped over the fence. >> you can see people are starting to run away. >> reporter: an international guardsman captured images too horrible to show. his wife was just minutes back on the racecourse. >> it was just the biggest hug

that you could ever see. >> reporter: this may have been the most photographed place in the country on monday. authorities are asking anyone with photos or video to share it with them so they can go frame by frame in search of the killer or killers. outside the home of martin richards a smiling 8-year-old who loved to run and climb, a single balloon inked with the words the door of heaven is open. his mom and his sister were also badly hurt in the blast. governor patrick told the story of meeting at the hospital with a wounded northeastern university student. she told him how she was tended in the medical tent by an afghan war vet who pulled up his shirt and showed her his shrapnel scar. it helped to ease her terror and she wants to thank him personally. in boston, bruce leshan, wusa 9. as we told you a few

minutes ago, law enforcement officials say the bombs were placed inside metal pressure cookers and those were then placed inside a nylon bag or backpack. joining us with more on the anatomy of the bomb, i want to thank you for being here. we appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you. >> the big deal here is that you talked to one expert who say we are lucky this bomb wasn't a whole lot stronger. >> they basically said this bomb could have been a lot stronger and killed a lot more people, mainly because this bomb was placed at the finish line and the bombs went off two second apart. they could have been had more time between them. if they had maybe a minute between them you would have had first responders going to people and a second bomb could have killed a lot more fire department people and first responders. so there's that. there's the idea these were just two bombs. there could have been a lot more bombs and kill more people. it's terrible three people dead and 170 injured. it could have been a lot worse. >> these folks who placed these

bombs had to know all this stuff would be caught on camera. this was a place under tremendous surveillance. >> all the experts i talked to said these people like attention. they placed the bombs where there were live cameras, where people would be watching. the idea they had these cameras at the finish line, these people are kind of gnar as a narcissic. >> we're used to fertilizer bombs and the things that blew up the oklahoma city building. what's changed since then? >> we've gotten smarter. if you try to buy a whole bunch ever fertilizers, the fbi will show up at your house. if you buy a whole bunch of pressure cookers, in this case two, i'm not sure how many, people won't show up to the house. you can buy nails, a pressure cooker, ball bearings, you can buy these things and no one's going to really notice you were doing something. these people were able to buy normal things and turn them

into an explosive. >> i get the sense these bombs are not that hard to build. >> from my understanding, they're not that hard to build. al qaeda from my understanding has a basic list of how you make these bombs online. basically i was told anybody can make these bombs, which is why it's going to be challenging to figure out who did this, at least from one expert. he said that anybody could have made these bombs. it could have been a foreign person or an american. >> we'll have to watch and see and hope for the best on that. thank you for joining us tonight. we appreciate it. >> thank you. more than 1,200 runners from our area took part in the boston marathon. one was 63-year-old coach. he crossed the finish line just 30 minutes before the bombs went off. >> i was in a bus changing clothes when we heard the booms a few second apart and then the shock waves followed, and it felt very much like i was at home on 9/11, the shock wave felt just the same. i knew instantly it was a bomb. >> you heard him right. mr. wynn had a front row seat

for 9/11 as well. a local principal who ran in the boston marathon quickly let his school in rockville know he was okay. andrew winter said he used his cell phone, a twitter account, even an automated phone message letting his school know he was unharmed after the blast. he also said he finished the race about a half an hour before the bombs went off. today, he kept on going around to his students saying, hey, i'm doing just fine. >> today, i was out on the front steps, you know, when the students came in, high-fiving and welcoming the students. they were, hey, so you're back, you know, you're okay. i'm like, yep, i'm fine. i'm here and just try to reinsure. no discussions -- reassure. no discussions, because there's no need. let the parents handle that. >> especially for the elementary schools. he ran as a fund-raiser for the juvenile diabetes research foundation. we need to know your feelings on the terror attack at the

boston marathon. are you heartbroken, maybe enraged and maybe a bit of both. what should be next? how should americans have to change the way they live to make themselves a bit safer from all this. send us an e-mail. the address mailbag@wusa9.com and we may get to your comments in tomorrow's broadcast. we've got you covered everywhere you go. we've lot the latest information on the terror attack at the boston marathon. our web editors constantly updating wusa9.com along with our facebook page. follow us on twitter for all the latest news as it happens. you should download the wusa 9 ipad app. it's free at the apple store. d.c. remains on high alert following yesterday's terror bombings at the boston marathon but this city went ahead with today's emancipation day parade as planned. >> reporter: this is bruise bruce johnson in downtown washington. city on high alert, no incidents.

it's a city holiday, time for family, food and a parade. one day after the boston marathon attack, d.c. residents and visitors turned out to commemorate emancipation day 1863. that's when president lincoln abolished slavery in d.c. talk of boston, thoughts of the explosion victims and a possible attack here were everywhere today. >> i know security is very good in washington, d.c., and the parade must go on and the celebration cannot stop. >> this is a city that is resilient. we are ready. it's very unfortunate, a tragic situation that happened in boston yesterday. >> reporter: the emancipation day activities continue through tonight, 8:45 this evening a fireworks display. this is bruce johnson reporting from downtown washington for wusa 9. still ahead, why the critics are already criticizing a bipartisan plan for immigration reform. also ahead a guilty verdict

in a peeping

>> joining us now with more information on the investigation into the boston marathon bombing, senior cbs correspondent. we know for a fact the boston story is a big thing, but tonight we got word there is an envelope that tested positive for ricin on capitol hill. wondering what your sources may be telling you about that. >> all right. this is an envelope that came in addressed to a senator. it came into the mail center, which as you know is not located at the capital since the anthrax event, all mail is handled off site. the system worked the way it was supposed to. it was identified as suspicious.

they did a field test that tested positive for ricin and did a second field test that confirmed that. those field tests are really indicators more than positive evidence. so what they've done is it's been turned over to the fbi in baltimore. that's going to go to a laboratory where they're going to really grow it out in a sample and if in fact it is ricin. so really it will be a couple of days before we know. what we do know is we have a suspicious letter with an unknown substance in it, and that's the key to the investigation right now. >> all right. let's get back up to boston. listen to that fbi special agent at the press conference a couple of hours ago. he talked about getting 2,000 tips on the bombing and more than 1,000 law enforcement types working on this. the word i seemed to feel is they didn't have much yet. is that what you're hearing? >> well, they have a lot. the thing is they don't know what's in what they have. you know, here is a system where they've gotten 2,000 tips. that has generated over 400 specific leads. almost 300 of those have been

covered. a little less than 100 of those have been closed out. so they have a lot to go through in terms of what's coming in from the public. and then, derek, of course, there's always the request not just for information, but also for imagery. what we've seen today is something we've never seen before. customs and border control and immigration enforcement agents deployed at logan airport getting people as they got on their flights coming from the marathon to leave the united states going back to their home country saying did you have a camera there? did you take pictures? do you have video? trying to download those images before the people get 3,000 miles away and the images go with them. >> from what we know about these bombs, do you think that that will be helpful for the investigators in figuring out where they came from? >> i think it will. i mean, we know a little bit about the devices. they are contained in pressure

cookers. they are probably relatively rudimentary and an easy bomb to make but when you go through those kind of images, even people don't know what they captured. once they identify a location where the first explosion was, the second explosion was and they go through the pictures and say does the same person show up at both locations? how far apart is that a coincidence or a suspect? and where else can they find him from security cameras elsewhere along the route and can they identify who that is? so it's going to be very important. >> john miller, cbs news, we appreciate your time tonight. thank you so much. >> thanks, derek. >> all right. we'll be

>> a chevy chase man pleaded guilty in the case of the high- tech peeping tom. he is 64-year-old dennis alan vandhusen, and prosecutors say he rented rooms in his home to young women and then used hidden cameras to record them in their bedrooms with their boyfriends. police say they found videos of those intimate encounters on vandhusen's laptop. police say he purchased the hidden cameras disguised as smoke detectors. republican senator john mccain and schumer met with president obama to outline a new bipartisan immigration reform bill. this legislation would give 11 million illegal immigrants in

this country legal status if they could pass a background check. let's get to topper because right now it's pretty nice out there, topp. >> it really is. our live michael & son weather cam, near the pentagon. lots of sunshine. temperatures still 72. our high was 7 4. winds right now out of the south at 11. they'll become easterly tomorrow as a cold front drops down from the north. these are monster thunderstorms in ohio. it covers much of western pennsylvania. some of this activity will get close to us late tonight. it will be much weaker. 73 reston. 73 in springfield. 73 college park. next three days, showers and storms possible each day. 73 tomorrow. mid-70s thursday. better chance of storms thursday and friday. upper 70s on friday. no day's a washout though. a saturday, very early, early morning shower but all your little league games will be

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in the mailbag tonight, the boston marathon bomb attack, of course. ron spoiling for pay back. i along with all of us are saddennd once again with acts of callous violence. let's find out what happened shall then let's act, period. when pearl harbor unfortunately happened, japanese officials noted we have awakened a sleeping giant be and indeed they did. my god, isn't it about time we wake up again? ron, i'm thinking we're wide awake here, but exactly what would you have us do that's not already being done by the fbi and everybody else involved here? meantime, over on the 9 news now facebook page we have a tremendous outpouring of grief over martin richard, the little boy killed while cheering on his dad running the boston

marathon. >> misty grove writes this breaks my heart. i am the mother of a soon to be 8-year-old boy and i can't imagine life without them. god bless martin's family during this difficult time. my thoughts and prayers are with the family. so very, very sorry. this especially poignant message from ginger brown. being a mom mom who recently lost my only child i pray for his parents. i hope they were comforted by the fact that he was so close to them and he was obviously proud of his dad that day. thank you, ginger. it occurs to me with all the social media -- the faces and the tears of these victims are not only in your living room, heck, they're on your ipad, too. and we feel their pain. i'm just hoping there's comfort in all that connectedness for the people that could really use a little comfort right now. i could use more of your e- mails. the address here mailbag@wusa9.com. i'm looking forward to hearing

from you. that's our broadcast. i'll be right back here at 11:00 along with leslie and topper. log on any time to wusa9.com. we'll see you tonight. bye-bye.

the boston marathon bombing the day after.

>> "e.t" with the stars personally affected by the tragedy. >> something just blew up? >> boston native mark wahlberg's heart break. hollywood extending support. >> our hearts go out to all you guys out there on the east coast. that's a real tragedy. >> terrifying new images that people who risked their lives to save the injured. >> what can you tell us on the ground there, are they expecting any more attacks coming >> the youngest victim, the eyewitnesses. >> it was just carnage. i saw a man who lost part of his leg. >> as investigators look for answers, "e.t" into deuce you to the heroes of the marathon explosion. plus who's the mystery man on the roof as the second bomb went off. the image going viral. and matt and ben, jennifer and bradley working just miles from the blast. hollywood's boston connection. >> there's some great an